Don’t Deify, Don’t Demonise

Congress created a Nehru cult but the critique of India’s first PM by today’s right wing is unfair

- Sagarika Ghose

A 1953 BBC archives video of Jawaharlal Nehru holding a TV interaction with three British editors recently became a talking point online. In times when neither the PM nor CMs are seen taking questions from journalists, a no-holds-barred Q&A between newspersons and a PM made for compelling viewing.

Yet the Nehru debate is not just restricted to social media. He’s also the subject of a fierce political tussle, one side insisting he’s a demigod, the other that he’s a Villain No 1.

The Karnataka government put out advertisements featuring freedom fighters, leaving out Nehru. A BJP official said the omission was intentional as Nehru did not disband Congress after Independence and was the ‘reason’ for Partition. Last year ICHR left out Nehru’s image from a ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ poster. Speeches made by BJP leaders on the freedom movement rarely refer to Nehru.

On the other hand, Congress can be accused of lionising Nehru to the cost of figures such as Subhas Chandra Bose and Vallabhbhai Patel. A 2009 RTI revealed hundreds of schemes, buildings and institutions named after Nehru and 450 government initiatives named after the Nehru-Gandhi family. Until today, Teen Murti House was exclusively a monument to Nehru. That Congress did not pay homage to non-Nehru Gandhi PM Narasimha Rao, when he died, in its party office was appalling.

Yet Nehru must be located in his times. He was a passionate advocate of complete independence and it was during his presidency of the 1929 Lahore Congress that the “Purna Swaraj” pledge was adopted. In 1927, during a protest in Lucknow, Nehru continued to stand defiantly while being beaten by a British mounted policeman.